Chapter 9 - The Blizzard and the Sanctuary
Maya ran out of the Drake Hotel without her winter coat.
The freezing Chicago wind hit her like a physical blow the moment she pushed through the brass revolving doors. Snow swept sideways off the lake, blinding her, soaking her green silk gown within seconds and turning her hair into icy strands against her skin.
She stumbled down the granite steps onto Michigan Avenue, her heels slipping on the icy pavement. Tears froze on her cheeks as she pulled her arms tightly around her chest, shivering so violently her teeth chattered together with loud, rhythmic clicks.
She didn't know where she was going. She just needed to escape the humiliation, the terrible realization that the most magical weeks of her life had been built on an invasion of her deepest, most private secret.
“Maya!”
A roar cut through the howling wind behind her.
Maya didn't turn back. She kept walking, her small heels clicking frantically against the snow-covered sidewalk.
A heavy hand grabbed her upper arm—firmly, but with immense gentleness—stopping her momentum.
Nathan spun her around.
He had run out after her without his tuxedo jacket. He stood in the blizzard in his black waistcoat and white dress shirt, which was already damp with snow, his dark hair plastered against his forehead, his face pale with utter terror.
“Let me go!” Maya cried out, her voice swallowed by the roaring gale. “Let me go, Nathan!”
“I am not letting you freeze to death on Michigan Avenue!” Nathan shouted back, his hands moving instantly to wrap around her shivering shoulders. He pulled her against his broad, muscular frame, lifting her slightly off her feet to shelter her body from the freezing wind with his own.
“Get away from me!” she sobbed against his chest, her small fists beating weakly against his soaked dress shirt. “You tricked me! You listened to my private life!”
“I listened because I couldn't look away!” Nathan roared over the storm, holding her tight despite her struggles. “I sat in that room with forty million dollars on the table, Maya, and when I heard you say you wanted a man who wanted your heart before your body, I looked at my pen and realized I had spent my entire life surrounded by people who wanted everything except my heart!”
Maya froze against his chest, her chest heaving, her frozen eyes staring up into his.
Nathan’s face was inches from hers, wet with melted snow and tears. His dark blue eyes were wild, raw, and completely stripped of every executive defense he possessed.
“I didn't seek you out to make you a prize,” Nathan rasped, his breath coming in white clouds between them. “I sought you out because you were the first person in my entire life who made me want to be worthy of love! I was terrified of you, Maya! I was terrified that if I touched you, if I looked at you wrong, I would prove to you that men are as cruel and transactional as you feared!”
The snow howled around them, sweeping down the empty avenue, but inside the circle of his arms, the heat radiating from his body was immense.
“I waited,” Nathan whispered, his voice cracking with a fierce, absolute truth. “I gave you the Rotterdam project so you would know your mind was brilliant. I accepted your rejection so you would know your boundaries were sacred. I fought for you in that conference room so you would know you were protected. I have never loved a woman in my life, Maya Bennett... but I am utterly, helplessly in love with you.”
Maya stared up at him, her body shivering violently, her tears melting into the snow on his collar.
The conviction in his voice was undeniable. It wasn't the smooth speech of a corporate executive; it was the raw, desperate cry of a man who had stripped his own soul naked in the middle of a blizzard to keep her warm.
“Nathan...” she choked out.
May you like
Without another word, Nathan scooped her up into his arms, lifting her completely off the frozen pavement, and turned back toward his private SUV idling at the curb, its driver frantically holding the door open.
He carried her inside the warm, leather-scented interior, pulling the heavy door shut against the storm, enveloping them in immediate, quiet sanctuary.
